


Something Greater, Something New

by YumeNoTsuzuki (Yumejin)



Series: Harrymort Prompts [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drabble, Goblet of Fire AU, I don't know what the hell this is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-27
Updated: 2013-01-27
Packaged: 2017-11-27 04:55:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/658224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yumejin/pseuds/YumeNoTsuzuki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt Fill.<br/>Voldemort returns from the Graveyard in Little Hangleton and reflects on his failure to kill Harry Potter yet again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something Greater, Something New

**Author's Note:**

  * For [IsysSkeeter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IsysSkeeter/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [IsysSkeeter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IsysSkeeter/pseuds/IsysSkeeter) in the [HarryMort_Prompt_Night](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HarryMort_Prompt_Night) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> something in the line "I looked at him and i couldn't kill him. i looked at him and i saw myself"  
> (from how to train your dragon) (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=515386665159482&set=a.488563867841762.112400.488555731175909&type=1&relevant_count=1&ref=nf)

“Why did you stop?” Riddle’s amused voice spilled from the pages of the diary as his ghostly form materialised, smugly seated on the top of the table with that infuriating expression of superiority his younger form was so often guilty of.

  
“Don’t be so smug,” he sighed, dropping into the seat behind his desk tiredly. “Unless you’d rather get locked away again, of course.”

  
The younger wizard scowled a little, but did not speak up again, instead eyeing him challengingly.

  
“I looked at him,” Voldemort said after a long moment of silence, leaning on his arm over the desk. “I really looked at him, for the first time ever.”

  
Riddle looked like he was repressing a snort, but knew better than to interrupt.

  
“I looked into his eyes and I saw myself as I could have been. A young boy with no family, surrounded by abusive adults, desperate to prove himself to the world. Screaming for attention because nobody is listening. He’s so strong, though. Even after all these years, he still has that spark of defiance, that light…” Voldemort breathed out slowly, caught up in the memory from the graveyard. “I couldn’t do it,” he whispered, the realisation finally driving home. “I hesitated, I was lowering my wand and he got away.”

  
“You’re getting soft in your old age,” Riddle scoffed and vanished into the diary with a poof of smoke, clearly disappointed in his older self.

  
“Maybe I am,” he sighed, covering his face with his hands, feeling the brand new nose, cheekbones, eyelids… “Or maybe he’s meant for something greater than dying at my hand, having accomplished none of the greatness he could be capable of.”

  
His mind was already jumping ahead, turning the gears of future possibilities and plans, not quite daring to interpret the true meaning of that desperate look in Harry’s green eyes, yet lighting a foreign, weak hope in the depths of his frozen heart.


End file.
